Larry Page is quoted as saying, “the only true failure was not attempting the audacious.” “Even if you fail at your ambitious thing, it’s very hard to fail completely.”

I’m reading, In The Plex, How Google think, works, and shapes our lives. By Steven Levy, (I bought it on the sofa whilst watching Formula One on TV, I love my Kindle)

It strikes me odd, that on this blog – which is sometimes about how to get your website ranked in Google – that we don’t talk about the architects of the system.

Looking around it seems that most other SEO blogs do the same. One reason for this may be the sparse nature of the information about them. We mostly listen to someone who goes by the name of Matt Cutts.

But listening to the thought process and motivation of the guys who actually built the thing may help in understanding how the thing works.

After all, if you try to study the algorithm, it makes sense to study those who created the algorithm.

Indeed, it makes perfect sense to “think like an engineer“, something I now have on my wall after listening to an Ed Dale Video.

Not only think like an engineer, but get into the mindset of someone driven to an end goal that is the incredible.

And so I would say, In The Plex is mandatory reading for anyone working in SEO. If you work at an seo agency, tell the fancy car driving boss that everyone in the company should be bought a copy of the book.

If they turn to you and ask, “what’s the book about?” You should probably consider jumping ship as it can get kinda mind numbing working for the unenlightened.